A community safety system balancing risk, cost and freedom

The primary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a range of proposed government actions can and often should be evaluated in a way that includes their effects on personal freedoms. This is illustrated in the case of efforts directed toward recreational boating safety in the United States, and evolves from a multi-year study to recommend the composition of an appropriate risk management system for that subject. The proposed system seeks to determine best safety/security decisions, in a way that reflects Community roles, values and resources, and that includes effects on "freedom" in the calculus of costs and benefits associated with alternative actions. Its extension to Regional Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning is discussed. There were 738 reported deaths in U.S. recreational boating accidents in 2009. There is a community interested in preventing boating accidents that includes the U. S. Coast Guard, agencies of each of the States and many localities, various non-profits and interest groups, and, of course, boaters themselves. The ethos of boating and related law are such that proponents for imposed safety measures, including boat and operator requirements and restrictions, must take into account the discretionary nature of this activity. Thus, the question, familiar in U.S. public decision-making, is how best to balance and apportion the risks, costs and changes in participant enjoyment or freedom to act connected with choices that might be made to enhance safety. This paper describes a proposed risk management system the development of which took place over a ten year period by a varied group of participants under a grant to the Marine Safety Foundation. The proposed system recognizes that any policy analysis must consider multiple objectives for different stakeholder groups. It is intentional in incorporating the views, values and resources of Community members in its analyses of proposals for safety actions. It is also intentional about incorporating- "freedom" as a value in play, (along with the costs to different parties and changes in risk/safety that might result,) in the quantitative analysis of its choices for safety interventions. Thus, these risk management guidelines comprise a structure of values reflecting U. S. political outlook, group relational elements, analytical processes and critical characteristics of its subject. As presented in its final report, published last winter, it includes a computer-enabled process, (developed by participants from Innovative Decisions, Inc.,) to weigh changes in risk, cost and "freedom" connected with proposed safety options. This model for an integrating framework incorporates probabilistic risk analysis, value-focused thinking for examining critical tradeoffs using multi-attribute utility analysis, and analysis of alternatives across multiple stake holders and boating classes. An in-depth analysis of the human-error causes of fatal boating accidents was also performed during the course of this project. It points out the most serious accident causes, which are seen to vary across different boat types, and provides another basis for identifying needed safety interventions. The outlook and approach developed in the course of this project are useful in a wide range of government decisions where actions intended to provide security or other aspects of the "greater good" demand a balance of rights and obligations among multiple stakeholders with different values, helping to rationalize the essential give-and-take of our political process.